Awake before dawn

Awake before dawn
Silencex —I dreamed I counted
How many snowflakes
Had fallen in the cold night
Forgottenx —nowx —stillx —blank
—white

AGG20140120

Depth Charge: Another experiment in Exploded Tanka, this poem’s starting point was a line from L’École des Beaux-Arts by Jacques Prévert: “Cette fleur subite/This sudden flower.” While pondering this line and looking out the window at dawn breaking across the winter sky, my mind then wandered to Spring Daybreak by Meng Haoran:

孟浩然的《春晓》

春眠不觉晓，处处闻啼鸟。
夜来风雨声，花落知多少。

Meng Haoran’s Spring Daybreak

Springtime asleep, I missed the dawn,
Everywhere the birds are singing;
During the night the wind and rain howled,
No way to know how many flowers have fallen.